Author's Note: This is the final chapter of this story. The next is being worked on as Rip moves to yet another universe. Thanks again for LE McMurray for allowing me to use the character of Kate for this story. If you liked her you should go read The Captain's Niece.
Hope you enjoy.
Tim walked into Lab 2, aware of the guards floating around and gave them a smile as he took a seat with his book. One was from the Seaquest, the other from Section 7.
"Why are you here?" the Reinhardt goon who had been assigned to watch the shard demanded.
"To read," Tim replied, holding up his book.
Sergeant Miller chuckled, "I take it the Tank is doing his meditations again."
"What?" the goon demanded.
"The Tank is one of the security team," Miller explained to the man he was stuck on guard duty with, "His quarters are next to Tim and the music he uses for his meditation is usually loud, as well as obnoxious."
Tim nodded, "Dr Smith has ordered me to rest for the remainder of the day. It's not easy to rest while he's doing them. He'll be finished in an hour so I thought I'd come read here since it's quiet."
The goon frowned, "That's not…"
"No, problem," Miller interrupted, "I couldn't bunk next to him."
Tim chuckled before he settled down in the corner of the lab, able to see the box with the shard through the window into Lab 1 and opened his book.
x
"Captain," Miguel spoke up interrupting the Captain's conversation with Reinhardt that Bridger was obviously not happy about having.
"Yes, Mr Ortiz," Bridger moved to him.
Miguel grimaced as Reinhardt walked over as well, "I need to take Mother offline."
"Why?"
"We're getting a glitch," Miguel explained.
Reinhardt frowned, "Really?"
"Mr Ortiz," Bridger ignored the other man, "You were saying about a glitch?"
Miguel nodded, "Mother was the closest WSKR to the shield the shard created. I think the energy has caused some system issues. I want to do a full diagnostic but I need to do a cross link with the communications system. Just to make sure we don't have a blind spot."
Bridger nodded, "How long will that take?"
"I will need about twenty minutes to fix the link," Miguel told him, "Then another hour to do the full diagnostic."
Bridger stood for a moment and mused over this before nodding, "Fine. Get it done."
Miguel nodded, "Yes sir."
"You're agreeing to take part of the boat offline when I'm escorting a criminal?" their irritating guest demanded.
"I'm agreeing to let my highly trained crew fix issues that could cause the boat to not make it to where you're wanting to go," Bridger replied.
x
"I will prove to you that you're wrong," Kate stated as she and Lucas walked into the Lab where Tim was sitting reading.
Lucas rolled his eyes, "No, you won't because you're wrong. It will work."
A cough from Miller made them look round, "Can we help you two?"
"I need the resonance monitor," Kate replied, "I am going to prove to Lucas his latest theory is bordering on crack-pot."
Tim chuckled.
"And you have to get it from here?" Reinhardt's goon demanded.
Kate and Lucas turned to him both giving an annoyed look at the question.
"We can't get into Lab 1," Lucas noted motioning to the locked door.
"And the one in Lab 3 was damaged last week," Kate added.
Tim nodded, "It's beyond repair."
Miller chuckled, "And whose fault was that?"
"Tony's," all three answered.
Laughing Miller nodded, "Get what you need," he stopped the other guard speaking, "I don't see them getting some equipment letting anyone near that thing."
Kate pulled open one of the cupboards, taking out a silver and white cube which she opened and pulled out the wires to connect to the system.
"How did the other one get damaged?" the goon asked thoughtfully looking at what seemed to be a benign piece of equipment.
Lucas shrugged while Kate continued the set-up, "There was an incident with a system cross-link on the bridge," he explained, "But what are the odds of that happening again?"
Rip sat on the bed of the cell waiting and wondering what Kate was planning to do that would help him leave.
"Captain," Gideon spoke up letting him know she had returned, "The hour is almost approaching. I believe you should prepare for whatever Miss Foster has planned."
"Did you do what I asked?" Rip queried.
Gideon smiled at him, "Yes, Captain."
Standing Rip nodded, "I hope this works and gets me to the shard."
"It shall, Captain," Gideon assured him, "I will be guiding you remember."
Rip chuckled slightly, "What would I do without you?"
"We both know the answer to that, Captain," Gideon replied tartly, "Your current predicament is testament to your uselessness without my continued guidance."
Forcing himself not to smile at her reprimand, Rip nodded, "I know."
The room jolted to one side suddenly, all the lights turned off for a second with red emergency lighting taking its place and the door to Rip's cell unlocked.
"This is your opportunity, Captain," Gideon stated, "Go. Now."
Rip pushed the door open and looked up finding the opening to the ventilation tunnels. Grabbing the chair from the small guard station in the corner Rip stood on it, pushing open the cover before pulling himself up into them. The shaft was a lot bigger than he expected it to be giving him plenty of room to manoeuvre in.
"This way, Captain," Gideon said from behind him.
Rip turned and followed Gideon through the ventilation shafts to what, he hoped, was his way off the Seaquest.
x
"Mr Ortiz," Bridger's voice cut through the surprise cries from the crew when the lights went out, "What happened?"
Miguel winced, "I'm not sure. The last time this happened someone had activated a resonance monitor at the same time as the cross-link."
"What does that mean?" Reinhardt demanded.
"It means the systems have been knocked out," Bridger grimaced, "After the last time I thought we made sure that everyone on duty knew when we had a cross-link in place?"
Miguel nodded, "Yes, sir. I sent out the notification to everyone on duty and all the science teams."
"Then you have a saboteur onboard," Reinhardt snarled.
Bridger turned on him, "Before you start to accuse my people there's an easier answer. Did you let O'Neill, Lucas and Kate know?"
"Tim was told to rest by Dr Smith," Miguel told him, "Kate and Lucas were working on the Stinger. I didn't think it was necessary."
"Call them," Reinhardt demanded, "And get someone to check on the prisoner."
Bridger let out a long sigh, "If you can get the communications system reset faster than my team then be my guest."
"You did this on purpose," Reinhardt snapped.
Miguel watched Bridger's eyes narrow before he turned to the man standing there, "Are you accusing me of doing something to my own ship and putting my crew in danger?"
Reinhardt took a step back from the glare, "I…"
"I'll take that as a no," Bridger stated coldly, "Mr Ortiz, Mr Piccolo, get us back online as fast as you can so that Mr Reinhardt can check in with his people."
x
"What the hell?" Miller cried when the lights went out.
Reinhardt's goon turned on them, "What did you do?"
Tim let out an annoyed sigh, "Did either of you check with the bridge before setting this up after last week?"
Kate turned to Lucas, "I didn't, did you?"
Lucas shook his head.
"You're telling him," Kate winced, "You're the one least likely to be killed by Nathan."
The Goon turned and checked the other room, "What about the doors?"
"You're fine," Kate assured him, "The security protocol means that when the power went out it locked. Same protocol for the bridge," she winced again, "Nathan is going to be mad as hell."
They all looked up hearing rattling above them.
"Someone's in the ventilation system," Miller noted.
The goon was about to aim his weapon when Kate caught his arm.
"Woah there, cowboy," she said, "It's probably one of engineering crew. We spend a lot of time in the shafts."
"I don't think so," Miller stated looking through the window as Rip dropped down from the ceiling.
The goon swore and ran with Miller to try to open the door. Kate, Lucas and Tim moved to the window to watch.
Rip turned looking over to the three of them, giving them all a soft nod through the soundproof glass.
"Thank you," he clearly said.
The three of them stood watching Rip open the case, the yellow glow filling the room.
They watched him take a deep breath in glancing to one side and smiling slightly before he reached out. The moment he took a hold of the shard bright light filled the room making them all turn away.
When it faded both Rip and the shard were gone.
Nathan stood with his arms crossed as Reinhardt and his people left the Seaquest after his apoplectic fit when he discovered Rip and the Shard were gone. Unfortunately for him, he had no way to prove that any of the crew had done anything deliberately. McGath had taken Nathan's side and ordered Section 7 off the boat.
"Well," Nathan noted as he walked over to where his senior crew were waiting for him by the moon pool, "What now?"
Lucas shrugged, "Darwin wanted to see us."
"Darwin wanted to see us?" Nathan asked concerned, moving to the edge of the water he reached out to stroke his friend, "Is something wrong, pal?"
"Message," Darwin replied.
Kate tilted her head thoughtfully, "You have a message for us?"
Darwin nodded.
"From who?" Tim and Miguel asked in unison.
"Captain Hunter," Darwin said before continuing sounding completely different to his normal speech pattern, "Wishes to convey his gratitude for everything you did for him while here. He understands his incarceration is not something you agreed to and wants you to know he enjoyed spending time with you all, even if the movie was terrible. He would have liked to thank you in person but that is not possible."
They all stared at Darwin when the message finished.
"Okay," Brody finally spoke up, "How the hell did he give Darwin that message when he was in a cell?"
Darwin laughed, "Gideon."
Realisation dawned in Tim's eyes, "He had someone with him. Someone possibly connected to him telepathically. I thought I saw someone every so often."
Nathan let out a sigh, "Unfortunately I don't think we'll ever know. Back to work everyone. I want to make sure that we can't short out the entire system in that way ever again."
The crew pretended to groan before they left talking amongst themselves leaving Nathan alone with Darwin.
"Do you know what happened to Mr Hunter?" Nathan asked as he gently stroked Darwin.
Darwin nodded, "Moved on."
"Not the answer I was hoping for," Nathan mused, "I was hoping he'd made it home to his own family."
"Not yet," Darwin replied, "More places to go but not alone."
Nathan nodded before he left hearing Darwin say.
"Never alone."
